http://www.g9g.org/?utm_campaign=feeds en-us 2010-05-24T21:12:47-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2010/05/24/having-far-too-much-fun-with-the-echo-nest-remix-api.html?utm_campaign=feeds Over the weekend I saw this post by Paul Lamere about a Python script by Tristan Jehan called the Swinger that uses the Echo Nest Remix API to alter the beat of a recording. It works by alternately stretching and shortening beats to create a pseudo-swing effect. It’s really rather addictive once you’ve started: Hungry Like the Wolf Come Out and Play Take Me I’m Yours The Bad Touch Coconut Video Killed the Radio Star Barbie Girl Hollaback Girl... porter 2010-05-24T21:12:47-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2010/02/14/apocalypsnow.html?utm_campaign=feeds Old Baltimore at dusk It’s been an absolutely crazy week. Starting a week ago Friday evening and going nearly non-stop through this past Wednesday we were walloped with just shy of 50" of snow in three separate waves. After the first round, I was able to get out walking for a few hours on Saturday evening and took a few photos of the surrounding neighborhood. All told, I spent five out of six days shoveling for multiple hours at a time by hand—no fancy snowthrower for me—just to keep up with the snowfall and plow filling my driveway with ice boulders. [Thanks for that guys.] According to Laura, it might have gotten to me just a little… What started... porter 2010-02-14T14:06:33-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2009/11/29/duncan-edward-glendinning.html?utm_campaign=feeds

Duncan Edward Glendinning

I haven't been paying much attention to my blog these days, so I'm a bit behind on the latest news -- the arrival of Duncan Edward earlier this month. I could excuse myself by the fact that if he'd waited till he was actually due he still wouldn't be here, but I suppose that's beside the point. I was in the middle of a meeting near the end of a rather hectic day at the office when Laura called me on my work mobile. Laura never calls me on that line, but my personal phone doesn't work inside our building so I knew it was important and I stepped out of the meeting to take the call. ]]> porter 2009-11-29T15:10:34-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2009/04/14/turning-the-tables-on-the-diggbar.html?utm_campaign=feeds Updated Apr 21, 2009: Starting today Digg has revised the behavior of the DiggBar so that visitors to Digg-shortened URLs who are not logged in to a Digg account will be redirected through to the destination site instead of viewing the page with the DiggBar. Authenticated Digg users may also opt out of the DiggBar in their account settings. Over the last week or so there’s been a rather large kerfuffle in various circles regarding Digg’s execution of the DiggBar (No, I will not call it “Digggate”), with some, like Faruk Ateş, responding with conventional arms fire and others, like John Gruber, going for the thermonuclear option. Lidija Davis has put together a good distillation of things over on ReadWriteWeb,... Web Development porter 2009-04-14T08:32:13-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2008/08/17/dueling-declarations-following-the-cascade.html?utm_campaign=feeds Following on the tail of my previous article on CSS 2 selectors, this time we're going to examine what happens when rules collide. When two or more different rule sets select the same element in the document tree and have declarations that try to set the same property, how does the browser know which one to apply? Which declaration will override the others? These are the questions that put the "cascade" in Cascading Style Sheets.

]]> porter 2008-08-17T16:07:26-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2008/08/17/css-2-selector-fundamentals.html?utm_campaign=feeds *I originally wrote this article sometime back in 2003 for a site called the Nemesis Project that has since fallen off the Net. Because it still (shockingly) has some useful fundamental information I decided to republish it here just so it would have a home somewhere. I've done little more than reformat it slightly. If any information is out of date or if any links are broken feel free to leave a comment.* In this article, the first in a two-part series, we're going to take a look at the basics of selectors in Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2 (CSS 2), including the components used to build them and the various ways to combine them. It's important to understand that what I'm presenting here is the full view of selectors as defined in the CSS 2 Specification. You may or may not be able to put some of the concepts discussed to use today because of poor browser support, particularly in the areas of attribute selectors and the `:before` and `:after` pseudo-elements. However, seeing the bigger picture provides valuable context, and support is continuing to grow. You don't want to be caught looking backwards as things move forward. So let's start out by examining some fundamental questions about CSS selectors. porter 2008-08-17T15:50:21-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2008/04/22/flickr-video.html?utm_campaign=feeds For those of you out there who are complaining that Flickr shouldn’t do video, you are cordially invited to suck it.... porter 2008-04-22T18:17:26-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2008/03/29/when-statistics-attack.html?utm_campaign=feeds

Dark side of the Google

If you hadn't already noticed Google has gone dark today. In honor of [Earth Hour][1] Google's changed the background color of their home page from its usual white to black. Over on TechCrunch Michael Arrington has been [scoffing][2] at how ironic this is: > We criticized Google when we first posted about this because, it turns out, black web pages actually may use more power than white ones (based on a study that [Google itself cited][3] last year). So Google is, ironically, causing people who visit their site to use more power to celebrate Earth Hour than they would on a normal day. The following is what the post that Arrington references by Bill Weihl on the Official Google Blog has to say: > ...on flat-panel monitors (already estimated to be 75% of the market), displaying black may actually *increase* energy usage. [Detailed results][4] from a new study confirm this. So there you have it. A black Google increases the power consumption for 75% of the market, therefore Google going black uses more energy than a white Google. Michael Arrington says so. Google says so. It must be so. Slight problem: There's no way to draw that conclusion with that amount of information. [1]: http://www.earthhour.org/ [2]: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/29/turn-your-lights-off-googles-gone-black-in-the-us/ [3]: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html [4]: http://techlogg.com/content/view/360/31/]]> porter 2008-03-29T14:23:02-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/12/06/aidan-emery-glendinning.html?utm_campaign=feeds Aidan Emery Glendinning Patience apparently does not run in my genes, because late Sunday night our son, Aidan, decided that we’re not the boss of him and that it was time for him to see the world outside. After a few hours in the hospital he was born early Monday morning, and came out screaming to beat the band. Over the last few days he and Laura and I have been getting into our routines, and for the most part he’s been an absolute angel — except for the times he’s decided that mid-diaper-change would be a good time to start pooping. Blowing bubbles from your backside with road tar can hardly be considered good behavior. Right now it... porter 2007-12-06T12:25:27-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/11/19/amazon-thinks-my-son-is-a-bastard.html?utm_campaign=feeds porter 2007-11-19T23:08:48-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/08/05/i-need-a-new-phone.html?utm_campaign=feeds There's no two ways about it: I need a new phone. My current phone, a [Motorola V551][1], has been on its last legs for several months now and I've been putting off getting a new one because I didn't want the hassle. But I don't think I can put it off much longer. [1]: http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=72 porter 2007-08-05T11:14:06-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/07/08/jason-lee-must-be-stopped.html?utm_campaign=feeds Some miserable so-and-so has crapped all over [Underdog][2] and put it on screen. I think I would rather go with Laura to see [Becoming Jane][3] and actually watch it than be subjected to [this pile of pants][4]. [1]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/ [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underdog_%28TV_series%29 [3]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416508/ [4]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467110/ ]]> Things that Piss Me Off porter 2007-07-08T00:25:00-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/06/30/in-case-you-hadnt-noticed.html?utm_campaign=feeds Profile As you might have seen from my photostream already, Laura and I have some rather exciting news. Laura seems to be doing her best to get me used to the idea of being covered in vomit, but so far everything else is looking very good. We’re looking forward to a way better than average Christmas present.... porter 2007-06-30T17:15:23-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/06/18/web-standards-the-threelegged-race.html?utm_campaign=feeds Molly threw [a bit of a hand grenade][1] into the community: > 1. COMPLETE HTML 4.1, XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 in specs and browsers where applicable > 2. CALL for consistent implementation of these most basic specifications in all current browsers and devices to this point > 3. WAIT for future HTML, XHTML and CSS implementations until these implementations are complete > 4. FOCUS on JavaScript and DOM fixes and implementations as we come up to par with markup and style Now, Molly, you know I love you so I'm going to assume that you were just looking to stir the pot to get people talking about this. I'll bite. [1]: http://www.molly.com/2007/06/14/defy-the-pedantic-semantic-html5-and-xhtml-11-must-stop-for-now/ "HTML5 and XHTML 1.1+ MUST Stop for Now" ]]> Web Development porter 2007-06-18T12:00:45-05:00 http://www.g9g.org/backblog/2007/06/10/ways-not-to-wake-me-up.html?utm_campaign=feeds

Not the best way to wake up on a Sunday

There are nice ways to be woken up and there are not nice ways of being woken up. My personal favorite way of being woken up is not being woken up at all and Laura knows this, which is why I know there's something wrong when she wakes me up on a weekend. Usually it's because Arrow's ripping up something he shouldn't be, or is eating something he shouldn't have been ripping up, or has thrown up something he shouldn't have eaten. But sometimes it's truly spectacular.]]> porter 2007-06-10T10:30:40-05:00